Separating Layout and Logic in Ajax based Application

One of the beauties of an Ajax based application is the ability of the webpage to dynamically change its content without refreshing the whole content. The data and the location wherein the information is displayed are asynchronously feed to the browser.

The challenge however, is in the development of the Ajax based website. As you may already know Ajax is not just a simple web technique. Even though it has been accepted as one of the highly efficient and widely used Web 2.0 language for web development, not all developers today have the ability to build an Ajax based website.

There is an alternate though. You may be thinking of a framework so let me stop you right there. A framework could be easily used with all the library of functions but there is actually another technique that could make an Ajax based development easier.

The trick actually is separating the layout with the data. Data could be easily transported to the client side using JavaScript while the layout could be extracted from layout engine which is basically the same server.

The benefit of this technique is basically you just build a data intensive website while the graphics does not get in your way. You can easily transmit data without having to think about what will be hovering along with the texts that you have just built. The layout will be designed only once. The clear separation of layout and logic is achieved. It is a clutter free technique which will lead you to simple development without all the fuss about bandwidth loading.

When you transport this idea to Ajax, things might get complicated because you just stream information but you cannot easily target which place the in browser it would exist. But remember DOM wherein it wraps the information so that the browser could read the information you are trying to stream.

You can even take it further by using frameworks for data only. SAJAX, AHAX and FJAX (Flash for Ajax) are some of the frameworks that are frequently used by developers who are not familiar with JavaScript. Even though you know how to use JavaScript, frameworks will basically ease the web development. With the layout already placed for the browser, the data will be easily loaded into the browser.

Frameworks will also take care of the logic of the browser. As we have already indicated, frameworks come in with the slew of functions that you can be easily loaded in the application.

Building an Ajax based application could be very challenging to most developers. But an easy option is to separate the layout of the website with the data and logic. That way, you will be able to build an Ajax based website without having to toil about everything. If you are already familiar with growing number of frameworks, you are virtually building an Ajax based application without JavaScript coding. The logic and data will be asynchronously rendered to the browser using the functions that are already included in the library that comes with the framework.